Niagara Falls, Ont., declares state of emergency ahead of eclipse | Canada Tonight

Ontario's Niagara region has declared a state of emergency As It prepares to welcome up to a million visitors for next month's total solar eclipse Niagara Falls will be one of the best places in North America to see the eclipse on April 8th it's in the path of totality where the moon will entirely block the sun's Rays for a few minutes the mayor has said he expects the most visitors his city has ever seen in a single day the state of emergency sets up additional measures for a day that could involve major traffic jams heavier demands on emergency services and cell phone network overloads and we are now joined by the mayor of Niagara Falls Jim dood Daddy and that is where he joins us from of course today uh Mr Mayor thanks for being here uh walk thanks for meav walk us through why you decided to make this declaration well the Declaration was made by the regional chair and in a an abundance of caution it'll also potentially open us up if we need any assistance with funding provincially or federally and it really reiterates the message that we've been sending we're asking people to come prepared make sure your gas tank is full your cars and your devices are charged bring your glasses uh don't show up hoping to find some bring your medication if you need it bring a blanket to lay down and enjoy and leave lots of time don't show up at the last minute come early parking is going to be a challenge we've got a lot of space for people not as much for cars take the GO train if you can to avoid it so what we're asking people to do is do your part this will be the biggest crowd in nagar Fall's history by far there'll be over a million people at one time if the weather is nice and we want it to be a positive experience for everybody and help us to help you let's talk about some of those numbers that you are expecting how many visitors are you expecting in the area and also what's your advice to people in terms of planning ahead if they do want to come down to Niagara Falls okay uh so happy to do that so the number we're expecting is upwards of a million people we've had some uh people in the US that have a major uh company that do these kind of documentaries that travel and cover these they said expect 8 to nine times the biggest crowd you've ever had the biggest crowd was Nick Wenda when he crossed the falls on a tight RPP and he did that 12 years ago we had about 150,000 people so we had aot a major transportation plan put together road closures extra go trins and it worked well this time it'll be significantly more so we want we want to be prepared for what's about to happen and what people can do so our best advice is you know because we're within a day's Drive of half the population of North America a lot of people are part of the rubber tire Market they get up they see the weather they make a decision to come and we're asking them to plan in advance now that the school boards are not going to have class that Monday it's going to be come a long weekend and we're asking people come early uh stay a day early come the day before come for the weekend whatever the case is but don't make a last minute decision you're probably going to be disappointed there'll be a lot of traffic and you have to prepare to walk I mean wherever you park it won't be right down at the Falls you might need some comfortable shoes make sure you come prepared and that's all we're asking people think about it measure twice cut once we want it to be as it always is in AER Falls a positive experience great memories and a good educational opportunity for a this is a once- in a-lifetime Opportunity the last full solar eclipse in agar Falls was 99 years ago the next one will be in 120 years it really is a once- in a-lifetime Opportunity where one of the great natural wonders is going to meet one of the great cel events at the same time at the same place I I also understand that the region is going to be modifying some of its programs and services and closing some facilities to keep traffic off the roads tell me a bit about that well we're all asking non-essential staff to to not be down near the Falls we're trying to get even Hospitality employees to park inside the city at our Arenas our community centers to leave extra spots for all of our visitors uh we've got a plan where some of us myself included I'll be riding my bike down there with my backpack so I'm hoping not to add to the extra vehicles and to make it easier to get around and and we're asking all of our staff we're going to have 2A radios and cellular and we're asking everyone to be prepared for everything we're trying to anticipate what might happen and of course the weather will have an impact as well so we're just asking people to to be mindful of the situation be patient there'll be a lot of people here everybody is going to be here for the same reason and we want everyone to take away nothing more than a good positive experience excellent memories well and that's what exactly what he's going to say you know states of emergency are typically uh associated with events that are not good this one is very interesting it's still an extremely exciting time uh for Niagara Falls tell me uh about your anticipation for this event and if the city's going to be buzzing with anticipation as well in the coming days well it's already happening you know there's warnings at the borders coming from the US expect delays on the 8th uh we're preparing everybody's figuring out what they're going to do people renting rooms people allowing motor homes in their driveways uh we're going to have a lot of overnight RVs parked in the Niger Parks Commission uh as far as tourism everyone's excited you know covid was tough for us we're Canada's number one Leisure destination we're used to getting 14 million people every year but not a million at one time so uh we're now domestically we're back to our pre-pandemic numbers overall for visitation but not International and this is the best thing ever for us because Mother Nature is going to give us a gift that we could never afford to do and and after Co International visitation dropped off and it's slowly creeping back well it's not enough to be known I mean Niger Falls is one of the great natural wonders of the world it's like I always call us the Coca colola of municipalities everybody knows us but it's not enough to be known they need to be talking about you and we need to take us from the back burner to the front burner and that's what Mother Nature is doing right now with this Eclipse so you know ever since National Geographic declared us the best place in the world to be and NASA announced they were going to be here the Canadian space agency Guinness Book of World Records is going to be here everybody wants to be a part of something great so that when they say where were you when and our tourism sector is hopeful that this will be advertising we could never ever dream of doing globally and that'll help the return of the international visitors there you go uh an exciting time indeed Mr Mayor I appreciate it as always good to see you that is Jim deodat he is the mayor of Niagara Falls thanks Travis